Now You See Me
by MythicalLocust
Summary: "Have you ever hidden...in plain sight?" In Plain Sight #1 *I don't own Supernatural*
1. Prologue

**"Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny"-C. S. Lewis**

Denver, Colorado 1989

"Thea!"

"Thea!"

"Miss Harper!"

Bright amber eyes snapped up to meet the exasperated face of her teacher. Several of her classmates had also directed their sight towards the young girl at the back of the room. Her teacher's lips settled in a thin line, clearly frustrated with the distracted brunette.

"Miss Harper, if you would please come up here to read your essay for the class?"

Thea shakily rose from her seat, she hated speaking in front of the class. Anxiety swelled in her chest as her pulse raced. She slowly moved up through the desks, trying to avoid eye contact with her giggling classmates. Her teacher was tapping her foot impatiently, her arms crossed waiting for Thea at the top of the room. Thea's feet dragged along the floor, trying to delay the inevitable shame of making a mistake in front of all her peers. She would rather be doing anything but this, she needed an escape. It was moments like these that Thea wished she were a bird, so she could just fly away from it all, away from the fear and the judgement. For most people, the phrase "safety in numbers" applies but not for Thea. For Thea, the more people surrounding her the more afraid she was. Thea was absolutely terrified of people.

Once at the top of the room, she turned to face her fellow students. Fidgeting with her silver cross and chain that hung around her slender neck, she anxiously cleared her throat. Her hands were shaking violently, the sound of her papers rattling resounded in the near silent room. She cleared her throat again, trying to relieve the pressure that was building there. She was conscious of all the eyes in the room on her small, shivering form. Her breathing was laboured, and black spots suddenly clouded her vision. Panic was setting in and she could barely get each breath out. Her vision was getting blurrier by the second when finally, it all went black.

The other people in the room watched as Thea's frame started shaking violently. They could all hear her gasps of pain. Her hand was still clutching her cross in a tight grip. Their eyes then suddenly widened as they watched the young girl disappear and there was silence once more.


	2. Chapter 1

"Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for something that's meant to come."

Lewistown, Pennsylvania

Thea sighed as she slid into the booth of the shabby, 24-hour diner. After just ganking a ghost and then going back to her motel to get a measly hour of sleep, Thea was exhausted. Of course, Thea was used to running on little to no sleep, however ghosts were always hard for her to hunt as they could still sense her even when she couldn't be seen. She had almost asked for help on this one and had to remind herself that she works best alone and that bringing another hunter into the mix would only come with questions and trouble. No, it was better for her to work alone despite the loneliness grasping at her heart. Thea wishes that she could just have one person that could see her and understand her, that wouldn't look at her like she's a freak of nature, like she had been touched by the devil.

She ordered a coffee, not feeling up to eating anything, though she knew she probably should. She glanced around the old diner, taking in the rust slowly growing on the furniture and the paint peeling off the walls. There was a large man sitting on a stool up by the register and a group of teenagers in a booth towards the back of the diner. The man on the barstool had the same idea as Thea and was only drinking coffee, he wore a harsh glare that would have made Thea shake had it not been that she'd taken on bigger opponents, such as the ghost tonight, and won. The teenagers in their booth were obviously having the worst case of the munchies Thea had ever seen. Their table was filled to the brim with food and as they called the waitress over, it seemed like more was coming. They were laughing loudly, almost obnoxiously in comparison to Thea's and the Man's silent demeanours. Thea had chosen to sit near the door, like always, so she could feel the fresh air and had an easy escape route.

It was then that Thea's bright amber eyes spotted the newspaper sitting on the booth across from hers, she got up from her booth, abandoning her coffee. She snatched up the paper and started to flick through it. She stopped suddenly when she came to an article about one Steven Shoemaker, who was found dead by his daughter. This part wasn't particularly interesting, what caught Thea's attention was Mr. Steven Shoemaker's eyes. According to the daughter, they were bleeding. Reading the article more thoroughly and learning it was only one state over, Thea decided to check it out, it might be nothing, a freak medical thing, but in Thea's experience it was _never_ a freak medical thing. Thea swept up her leather jacket and swiftly left the diner, newspaper in hand. She hopped on her bike and sped out of the parking lot, leaving a steaming cup of coffee behind her.

NOW YOU SEE ME

Toledo, Ohio

Thea walked down the halls of the hospital unnoticed, she kept her breathing steady and her black combat boots made no noise on the hospital floor. She made sure not to bump into any of the nurses or doctors bustling about and had to swerve out of the way when a trolley carrying a moaning patient sped passed her. It was times like these that Thea thought maybe her 'peculiarity' was in fact a gift, that maybe it wasn't an evil force that made her. It certainly was handy for hunting, this way she didn't have to deal with all the hostile officials and most monsters couldn't sense her when she was like this, invisible. God, she hated the word, it felt like poison in her mouth whenever she spoke it, not that she spoke it often. Really, she didn't have anyone to say it too and after the way her parents reacted could you really blame her for being cautious and untrusting of other people, especially when it came to her 'gift'. Thea looked up and noticed she was standing outside the morgue, but she could hear voices inside, so she couldn't go in yet, so she sat on a nearby seat and waited.

Twenty minutes later the doctor and his assistant left the morgue. Thea got up out of her seat and slowly pushed the door open once she couldn't see them anymore, their voices growing distant. The morgue was cold, but Thea was used to this particular cold. She quickly and quietly crept over to the doctor's desk, rifling through it until she found the list of corpses in the morgue. She then headed over to fridge number two, where the list said Mr. Shoemaker now resided. Thea opened the latch on the door and pulled out the table with a covered Steven Shoemaker on top of it. She uncovered the body down to the shoulders and immediately regretted it because even for Thea this was a bit much. The newspaper said that his eyes bled, what they seemed to forget to mention that his eyes had completely exploded. Thea gagged a little, Steven Shoemaker's eyes were completely liquified. This was definitely Thea's kind of thing, there was no way this was natural causes. Thea closed the fridge to go looking for the police report. She found it in a locked filing cabinet, she made quick work of the lock and then decided she had everything she needed. She quickly left the morgue with the police report in hand.

NOW YOU SEE ME

Thea sat outside the hospital on a bench surrounded by flowers, reading the police report she had stolen. So far, there was nothing of value in the report, just the daughters' statements and the autopsy report, which Thea knew was useless. Thea looked around the hospital grounds, had she been visible she would have felt very out of place, in her black, ripped jeans, Nirvana t-shirt, her signature leather jacket and her combat boots were a stark contrast to the nurses in their uniforms or the nicely dressed family members visiting their loved ones, dressed so nicely it was almost like they were going to church and not visiting the ill. Although Thea did not like people, she did quite like watching them when they couldn't see her, it was peaceful in comparison to her usual chaotic life. Her moment of peace however didn't last long as the doors to the hospital swung open and two men came marching out.

The taller of the two was _very_ tall, like a giant among men. He has shaggy brown hair with a fringe and brown eyes. He has a muscular build with broad shoulders and a muscular chest. He's wearing tatty jeans with a brown jacket over a dark grey zip-up hoodie all over a grey t-shirt. He's also wearing brown boots. He has a look of exasperation on his handsome face and is rolling his eyes at the smaller man beside him, who is spewing all sorts of profanities from his lips. The smaller man, who was still considerably tall, was very loud. He held a look of frustration on his face and was gesturing wildly with his hands. He's wearing a leather jacket that's just a bit too big over a blue shirt and a black t-shirt, hanging around his neck is an amulet. He too wears tatty jeans and boots. He has short cropped dark blonde hair and the cutest freckles dance on his face. His gorgeous green eyes hold frustration and anger, the latter of which he's trying to hide. The frustration however is as clear as day. The two men stop at the foot of the steps leading to the doors, the taller one starts to talk while the other decides to look around the hospital grounds.

Thea watched as his eyes scanned the grounds before they landed on her bench, she knew he couldn't see her but when she looked into his eyes it was almost like he was looking right at her. He seemed to scan down her body, which for some reason made Thea smile, before landing on the file, Thea shook it off as her imagination, he couldn't actually see her. Then he did something odd, he started walking over to the bench, the taller man following behind looking confused. The man with the green eyes stopped right in front of her. He looked like he was about to speak but before he could the shaggy-haired man spoke up.

"Dean, what are you doing?"

Dean looked back at the taller man with an 'are you kidding me?' face.

"What does it look like I'm doing, Sammy? She has the Shoemaker report," Dean states in a 'duh' tone.

Thea's eyes widened, Sam looked as confused as ever and Dean looked exasperated.

'This can't be happening,' thought Thea, 'no one can see me when I'm like this. No one. Not werewolves or vampires or witches. Hell, ghosts can only sense me for Christ's sake. Who the hell is this guy? And how can he see me?'

"Who has the Shoemaker report?" Sam asks, still looking thoroughly confused.

Dean gestures to Thea and says, "she does, who else?"

"There's a woman on this bench that has the report?" Sam asks incredulously, looking at Dean like he's lost his mind.

Dean looks back at Sam as though Sam has equally lost his own mind and nods his head.

"Dean, there's no woman on this bench."

At this point Thea is hyperventilating. Someone could see her. Someone could see her when she didn't want them too. She didn't know whether to be happy or afraid, her body has seemed to pick panicked because she couldn't seem to breath properly. Both men seemed intent on arguing over whether Thea was there or not, so Thea took this opportunity to run as fast as she could. She just needed to get away and to think. Yes, that seemed like a logical plan. She quickly made herself visible, not caring at that moment if someone saw her and hopped on her bike. She peeled out of the lot, only one thought on her mind.

'Shit!'


	3. Chapter 2

**"Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible"-Frank Gaines**

Toledo, Ohio

Dean Winchester was angry. First, he can't find his dad anywhere, it's like he's being led on a wild goose chase, then his brother starts having nightmares he won't talk about and now this stupid morgue attendant can't find the police report they paid good money for.

"You know what, it's fine," said Sam, "we can finish our paper without the report."

The two men walked out of the hospital, Dean muttering all kinds of profanities under his breath continuously getting louder the farther away from the morgue they walk.

Reaching the end of the steps outside the hospital, Sam turns to Dean and starts to talk.

"You know there probably wasn't going to be much in that report anyway..."

Dean zones him out as he starts to look around, there was nothing out of the ordinary some nurses having a smoke break, families visiting loved ones dressed all fancy. Then Dean paused because on the bench to his left there sat the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and he doesn't say that lightly, in fact he doesn't call women beautiful at all, but she was. She was wearing a tight leather jacket, under which was a Nirvana shirt. She wore ripped jeans and combat boots. She had long, light brown hair that spilled over her shoulders and down her back. Her face was heart shaped. She had a thin mouth which was turned down in an uncomfortable frown and a cute button nose but the most amazing thing about her were her eyes. Her eyes were a bright amber that bounced from her head. Dean smiled a little as he scanned her appearance. Unique. Not beautiful. Unique. She seemed to be looking at him and smiling as well, which made his smile uncontrollably bigger. That was when he noticed the file in her hand. The Shoemaker Report. Dean wasn't sure whether it actually was the right report or whether he just wanted to go and talk to this woman, but he started to stride over in what he hopes was a confident swagger, with Sammy following like a confused little puppy behind him.

Dean opens his mouth to speak, when his fool of a brother interrupts him, asking him what he's doing as if it wasn't obvious. He was trying to talk to this gorgeous woman _and_ get the Shoemaker report. He was killing two birds here. Dean looks over to Sam with a face that asks whether he's stupid or just blind.

"What does it look like I'm doing, Sammy? She has the Shoemaker report," Dean says.

Dean looks back at the woman before him, she's staring at him wide eyed, almost looking scared. Concern immediately climbed to his surface. For some reason the thought of this woman being upset physically pained him, he couldn't stand the thought. This was new, Dean was rarely concerned, _really _concerned, for anyone outside his family. Why was this woman so different?

"Who has the Shoemaker report?", Sam questions, starting to get a little pissed.

Dean clearly points to the woman in front of them.

"She does, who else?"

They then begin to argue about the woman on the bench, or lack thereof in Sam's case.

"I'm telling you Dean, there is no one on this bench, just look!" Sam eventually shouts.

Dean looks over at the bench once more and Sam was right, there was no one there. That's not possible, she was right there, he saw her. She was real, he just knew it. Or maybe he was losing his mind. God, he _needed _to get some sleep. His mind just couldn't seem to shake this woman though, she was real.

Sam looked at his brother, this was weird. He knew some hunters went insane after years of the life, but Dean needed a bit more time under his belt before he goes crazy, besides Dean loves hunting. Sam was just going to have to watch him more closely, as closely as Dean was watching him and his nightmares.

"Let's go talk to the daughter," Sam says, starting to walk back to the car, but Dean can't seem to move from his spot, glaring at the bench.

"Come on, let's go," Sam says, concerned and exasperated at the same time.

Dean seems to snap out of whatever trance he was in and starts to make for the car, glaring at anything he can find. He opened the car door and slammed it shut again once he's in his seat. Annoyance was clearly etched on his face.

"Dude, you okay?"

Dean glared at Sam as he reverses out of their parking spot, spitting out an "I'm fine", driving away from the hospital, thoughts still on the mysterious woman on the bench.

**NOW YOU SEE ME**

Dean and Sam walk into the Shoemaker's house, a strong floral smell hit their noses the second they stepped through the threshold of the door. As they look around Dean was distracted by the image of that woman outside the hospital, he could sense Sam's concerned eyes and was getting sick of the worried looks his brother kept sending him.

They walk through the house, looking for Donna, the victim's daughter. Sam eventually asks someone, and they're pointed in her direction, outside, sitting with her friends. They start in her direction.

Once they reach her, Dean catches her friend's flirtatious looks as her eyes scan the brothers. Normally this would make Dean smirk, but for some reason an image of the amber eyed mystery crossed his mind, almost making him uncomfortable with the looks donna's friend was sending his way. Dean shakes his head, sleep deprivation really made him stupid, and plasters his signature smirk on his face.

"You must be Donna, right?", Dean asks, trying to be polite as possible.

"Yeah," Donna replies meekly.

"Hi, ahhh, we're really sorry," Sam says a bit awkwardly, trying to get Donna to open up, they needed all the information they could get.

"Thank you."

"I'm Sam, this is Dean," Sam continues, gesturing to his brother, "we worked with your dad."

"You did?", Donna questions, a little incredulously, but seemingly convinced.

"Yeah. This whole thing, I mean a stroke," Dean replies, only to be cut off by one of Donna's friends.

"I don't think she wants to talk about this right now," she starts but Donna interrupts her.

"It's okay. I'm okay."

Dean continues his enquiry, "were there ever any symptoms? Dizziness? Migraines?"

Donna looks down, thinking, "no," came her reply. Suddenly a young girl turns around to Donna.

"That's because it wasn't a stroke!", she cried.

This caught the brothers' attention. They gave each other a quick glance before Sam asks what the small girl is talking about.

"I'm sorry, she's just upset," says Donna.

The girl, Lily, shakes her head, "no, it happened because of me."

As Sam walks over to the young girl, kneeling in front of her, Dean sees something out of the corner of his eye. He looks up, beyond the grieving sisters to see a pair of bright amber eyes. It was the woman from the hospital and she seemed to be listening to their conversation intently. Dean tried to get Sam's attention, being as subtle as possible. It wasn't subtle enough, as Donna's friend, Charlie, gave him a strange look. People were walking right passed her like she wasn't even there. Dean felt as though he was going crazy, he could see this beautiful woman, why couldn't anyone else? She was certainly striking enough to be noticed, there should at least be one man trying to chat her up, even at a funeral.

Dean was snapped back to the task at hand when a small voice said, "Bloody Mary. I said it. Three times in the bathroom mirror. She took his eyes, that's what she does."

"That's not why Dad died. This isn't your fault," exclaimed Donna.

"Yeah, I think your sister's right, Lily. It couldn't have been Bloody Mary, I mean your dad didn't say it, did he?", Dean asks, suddenly very curious.

"No, I don't think so," Lily's voice shook.

Dean gave her a nod and looked back up to where the woman from the morgue stood, only to realise, with a hint of unexplained disappointment, that she was gone.

**NOW YOU SEE ME**

Dean groaned to himself as he and Sam walked into the library, research was his least favourite part of the job. His thoughts kept going back to that woman. Twice he's seen her now and both times it seemed that he was the only one who could. He just couldn't figure her out. Then there was Bloody Mary. Each piece of information they had gathered so far just didn't make sense, like when puzzle pieces don't fit together. It also didn't help that Charlie, one of Donna's friends, had caught on to their act, it made everything more stressful when someone was wary of them, it made it harder to get information out of them.

_Sam and Dean walked up the stairs of the Shoemaker home, looking for the bathroom where Steven Shoemaker had died. They walked down the hall, coming to a stop outside the bathroom where it happened. Sam silently pushed the door open and they both looked around the bathroom, there was blood still stained on the floor but overall it was quite clean._

_"The Bloody Mary legend. Dad ever find any evidence that it was a real thing?", Sam asks._

_Dean shakes his head, "Not that I know of."_

_Dean moves into the room to take a look around while Sam bends down to inspect the blood-stained floor._

_"I mean everywhere else, all over the country, kids play Bloody Mary and as far as we know no one dies from it," states Sam._

_"Yeah, well, maybe everywhere it's just a story but here it's actually happening," Dean replies._

_"The place where the legend began?", Sam says, not really sure of his theory._

_Dean shrugs as if to say 'maybe' as he open up the cabinet, pointing the mirror towards Sam._

_"But according to the legend the person who says...", Sam starts, glancing at the mirror before closing the cabinet, "the person who says you know what gets it, but here..."_

_"Shoemaker gets it instead, yeah," interrupts Dean, "never heard of anything like that before. Still the guy died right in front of a mirror and the daughter's right, the way the legend goes, you know who scratches your eyes out."_

_"It's worth checking into," Sam says softly._

_Just then the soft clicking of heels could be heard coming down the hall, the two brothers quickly exit the bathroom only to be stopped short by Charlie, standing in front of them, one hand against the wall the other resting by her side._

_"What are you doing up here?", she questions in an accusing tone._

_"We," Dean starts, glancing over at Sam, "we had to go to the bathroom."_

_Charlie looks at them disbelievingly, "who are you?"_

_"Well, like we said downstairs, we worked with Donna's dad," Dean responds._

_"He was a day-trader or something, he worked by himself."_

_"No, I know, I meant...", Dean starts._

_"And all those weird questions downstairs, what was that?"_

_There was a moment of silence which Charlie breaks threatening, "so you tell me what's going on, or I start screaming."_

_Sam was quick to respond to the threat, not wanting himself or Dean to get caught, "alright, alright, we think something happened to Donna's dad."_

_"Yeah, a stroke," Charlie states._

_"That's not a sign of a typical stroke", Sam responds._

_Charlie looks down, knowing he was right._

_"We think it might be something else," Sam says cautiously._

_"Like what?", Charlie asks._

_"Honestly, we don't know yet," Sam answers, shaking his head, "but we don't want it to happen to anyone else. That's the truth."_

_"So, if you're gonna scream, go right ahead," Dean says, shrugging his shoulders._

_Charlie looks down again, thinking, before looking up, a question on her tongue, "who are you? Cops?"_

_Sam and Dean look at each other, smirking slightly._

_"Something like that," Dean assured._

_"Tell you what, here, you think of anything, you or your friends notice anything strange, out of the ordinary, just give us a call," Sam says, while writing down his phone number on a piece of paper and giving it to Charlie._

_The two brothers then walk back downstairs and out the front door, Dean looking for another glimpse of the amber eyed beauty from before._

Dean groaned again, his thoughts were racing now. They would start with Bloody Mary and then move quickly to the woman, then to Charlie and all her questions, then back to the woman, back to the case, the woman, Charlie, the woman, the case, the woman, they just wouldn't stop. He was becoming exhausted.

"Alright," he turns to Sam, "say Bloody Mary really is haunting this town. There's gotta be some sort of proof, right? A local woman who died nasty?"

"Yeah, but a legend this widespread is hard. I mean there's like fifty versions of who she actually is. One story says she's a witch, another says she's a mutilated bride and there's a lot more," Sam answers.

"Right, so what are we supposed to be looking for?"

"Well every version has got a few things in common. It's always a woman named Mary and she always dies right in front of a mirror. So, we gotta search local newspapers, public records, as far back as they go. See if we can find a Mary who fits the bill."

"Well, that sounds annoying," Dean complains.

"No, it won't be so bad. As long as we...", Sam stops, noticing that all the computers are out of order, "huh, I take it back, this will be very annoying."

Dean turns, looking at the 'out of order' signs on the computers, he groans again, "so, what do we do now, Sammy?"

"It's Sam," Sam grumbles, "and we do this the old-fashioned way."

Sam leads them both up to the front desk. The librarian looks up at them.

"Hi," Sam starts in an overly cheery voice, "do you have hard copies of old newspapers, public records that we could see?"

The librarian laughs, "it's funny you should ask. A young woman came in earlier with that very same request. Gorgeous young thing, strange eye colour, kind of amber. So, oddly enough no, I don't. Is it important?"

"Thank you for your time," answers Sam.

Dean just stood there, staring at the librarian. Amber eyes. It couldn't be, could it? The mystery woman has shown herself to someone other than him, he wasn't crazy, she was real. Now why couldn't Sam see her? Maybe Sam was the strange one. It didn't really matter though because she was real! He started to smile, an uncontrollable smile, a smile so big it was uncomfortable, he couldn't stop though. This gorgeous woman that for some strange reason made him feel light inside was real. It was then Dean realised for the first time in a while, he was happy, completely, irrevocably happy and this made him smile wider, as he and Sammy left the library.


End file.
